In a striking incident highlighting infrastructural challenges, doctors at a hospital in southern India’s Karnataka were forced to treat patients using candles and torchlights during a power outage.

This power cut occurred at a government hospital in Ballari, Chitradurga district on May 23.

Visuals showed how the doctors were examining the patients undergoing torchlight and the whole hospital staff had to work using candles.

It left medical professionals struggling to provide care without adequate lighting or functional medical equipment. As the generator wasn’t working for the past week the last retort of the doctors was only candles and torchlight.

The power failure, which lasted for several hours, disrupted operations and even led to allegations of critical patient care being compromised. The situation was so dire that medical staff resorted to using mobile phone flashlights to conduct examinations and perform essential medical procedures.

Compounding the crisis, there were reports that two ICU patients tragically died during the outage. While some attributed their deaths to the power cut and malfunctioning ventilators, the hospital authorities and the state government have denied these claims, stating that backup systems were in place and that the patients succumbed to their pre-existing conditions.